Beamly to support Android TV

Social TV platform Beamly is bringing its personalised TV guide, content discovery, content recommendation, remote control, personalised news feeds, community and show engagement platform to the first screen.

“We’ve always seen the future as being not about the first screen or the second screen, but a two-way connection between the device in your hand where you browse and interact with TV shows, and the big screen where you watch those shows” said Anthony Rose, co-founder and CTO at Beamly. “The arrival of the Android TV platform will finally make this possible. For device manufacturers, this is a huge opportunity, but also a challenge – simply shipping a box with a grid EPG is no longer an option.”

By integrating Beamly’s Android TV application into their devices, OEMs are able to provide a complete TV solution powered by Beamly’s personalised guide and content discovery platform, where the user can seamlessly browse for shows on their phone or on the TV. Beamly’s remote control capability allows the TV set, an external set-top box (Sky, Comcast, Virgin, etc.) and the Android TV interface all to be controlled with a single click, creating a unified experience across cable, free to air and IP-delivered content. Additionally, the Beamly mobile and on-screen apps can synch with the show being watched, providing a synchronised second screen social and show participation experience.

“Television is no longer something you experience just on your TV. As viewing shifts increasingly to on-demand, your TV engagement is a 24/7 experience – in the morning you catch up on the latest gossip, in the afternoon you plan your viewing, see what’s hot, connect with friends. Then during prime time you watch and join in on the second screen, and then join the after-show chat. We’ve learned that a linear TV guide and some recommendations no longer cuts it, you need to provide an all-day experience, across mobile and TV. The Beamly platform allows an Android TV manufacturer to deliver that experience,” added Rose.

Beamly’s SpotSynch ad platform allows device manufacturers the potential to participate in an ongoing revenue stream from consumers rather than merely a one-time device sale every seven years, the average TV replacement cycle.

Incorporating the Beamly application into their Android TV devices allows manufacturers to deliver Beamly’s second screen TV show games, votes, polls and interactions, as used by NBC, Viacom, Sky and other major broadcasters, directly into the show itself, allowing users to play along to popular shows from their phone or directly on the TV.

“We’ve been amazed at the inbound calls from Android TV manufacturers who all face the same issue. We realised that the Beamly platform and mobile app, combined with a Beamly app for Android TV, would allow Android TV manufacturers to bring their devices to market in a fraction of the time and cost, and with a proposition that’s far ahead of anything else in the market,” claimed Rose.

Beamly is already working with several Android TV manufacturers on integrating the Beamly experience across their platform, but is open to all.

The Beamly app for consumers is available free from Google Play for Android, the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and on the web at http://beamly.com.